Pregnant women whose blood pressure was recorded as high at any point are at greater risk of heart and kidney problems as well as diabetes, an American study has found.

High blood pressure in pregnancy can be part of the potentially fatal condition pre-eclampsia which affects one in ten women but researchers in America studied women who were only found to have blood pressure problems, which is far more common.

One third of the women in the group had a high blood pressure reading on at least one occasion while pregnant.

The women, all classed as having low risk pregnancies, had their babies in 1966 and were followed up for the next 40 years.

It was found that women with high blood pressure were up to twice as likely to have heart disease later in life, when compared with those who had normal blood pressure throughout pregnancy.

Those with at least one recording of high blood pressure were two to five times more likely to die of a heart attack.

They were at between 1.4 fold and 2.2 fold risk of diabetes and at a slighltly higher risk of kidney disease.

The findings were published in the journal Circulation.

Dr Tuija Männistö, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, in Rockville, said: "According to our findings, women who have had high blood pressure during pregnancy or who are diagnosed with high blood pressure in pregnancy for the first time might benefit from comprehensive heart disease risk factor checks by their physicians, to decrease their long-term risk of heart diseases."